Big smoke

Kevin Nelson finds city folk have a taste for his cured Armidale trout, Anneka Manning reports.

Kevin Nelson, of Honey Smoked Trout, is no stranger to fish, having spent nearly 30 years in the industry. The first 15 were with NSW Fisheries, breeding trout to stock streams and rivers.

Two years before leaving Fisheries he had his first lesson in trout smoking. It was in a discarded refrigerator - an open fire took the place of the motor, the door was shut and the trout were left on the refrigerator shelves for about two hours to smoke.

Nelson has been smoking trout ever since, even though the equipment has changed slightly, first for his employer and then for his own business.

Honey Smoked Trout is based just outside Armidale in the Northern Tablelands of NSW. It was established so Nelson could pursue his love of smoking fish while setting up a business that his children one day could be involved with and eventually take over.

Smoked whole rainbow trout ($6 each) was the first product produced under the Honey Smoked Trout label and remains the core of the business. Smoked trout fillets ($8 for a 300g packet or $20 for three packets), pate ($7.50 for 150g) and dip ($7.50 for 300g) are also produced.

His clients include delicatessens around Sydney, the Hotel Motel Dorrigo, which has sold his products from day one, and he has a stall at the Good Living Growers' Market.

The smoked trout has a wonderful melt-in-the-mouth, almost creamy texture and a full-bodied flavour that needs little, if any, embellishment.

It is perfect on baguette slices spread with sour cream or creme fraiche and flavoured with a little lemon zest and chopped coriander, dill or parsley. You can also try it in a salad of kipfler potatoes and watercress dressed with an olive oil, verjuice, lemon zest, garlic and parsley dressing; or in a simple pasta with baby spinach, dill, green onions, baby capers and a little cream accompanied by lemon wedges.

So what's the secret to the quality?

"I suppose it is consistently good fish to start with [most of the trout Nelson uses are from the Snowy Mountains Trout Farm in southern NSW] and the right method of smoking to create flavour."

When hot smoking, the secret is to keep the temperature of the smokehouse down as this helps to keep the moisture in the fish, Nelson explains. Before smoking he soaks the trout in brine and then uses local honey to baste them during smoking, which takes at least 12 hours. Once smoked, the trout are chilled quickly before being packaged immediately to preserve the moisture.

Honey Smoked Trout is a part-time job for Nelson. His aim is to make it into a full-time venture. He believes that there is potential for the business, which sells about 500kg of smoked trout a month, to increase tenfold with a diversified range, such as adding smoked eel.

The biggest obstacle to this evolution is the time it takes Nelson to visit each retail outlet to introduce the products. After a few days in Sydney, he's often keen to head back to Armidale.

Honey Smoked Trout is at the city end of the grassed area at the Good Living Growers' Market at Pyrmont Bay Park this Saturday, 7-11am.